The stories and faces of child abuse, murdered and missing children are gut wrenching. Most of us read these stories and wonder how there can be so much evil, and most especially directed at innocent children. I cannot understand, as I think most people cannot. What has gone so terribly wrong that these cases hit the news almost daily anymore? Where is all of this evil coming from???

Sadly it is nothing new, there just seems to be more of it. Recently someone close to me shared a series of books about a boy named David Pelzer. His story of abuse took place in the 1970’s . I’ve read the first book: “A Child Called It”, and I’m currently reading the second book: “The Lost Boy”, and I have the third: “A Man Named Dave“. He has written 7 books and God Bless Him, I admire him greatly and intend to read all of his books. I can tell you that the first book was a very hard read, as it chronicles the abuse that he went through at the hands of his mother, but at the same time while it was hard to read, it was hard to put down, because I knew he overcame it, because he wrote the book. I won’t tell you Dave’s story, as I will just recommend that you read his books, he tells his story, and he does it well. The person that shared these books with me did so because they know how deeply I care for the little children I write about and how much I want to raise awareness in the hopes that we can somehow fix what is going wrong that causes these tragic stories. Most of us only know about the “high profile”, and a few of us do follow the cases that don’t make the national news, but I believe with all of my heart there are so many stories that none of us ever know about.

Children are such a gift from God. Each one of them is special, and was designed for a purpose. Every time the world loses a child, it loses so much, a great leader, a great scientist, or doctor, lawyer, judge or minister, the potential for each child is so great, I don’t understand how that can be missed. Children are our future, and they are a gift that God entrusted us with, to nurture and protect, lead and guide, helping them to reach their full potential. It is a responsibility that should never be taken lightly. We should be giving God our best through these little ones. How someone, anyone can miss that is totally beyond me. I cry for every child I write about. I cry for every child I read or hear about that goes through these unspeakable horrors. I pray and beg God for the ones to be spared that are still missing, and sometimes a happy ending comes and they are found alive. Some that I write about are not dead, they are very much alive, THANK GOD, and it is such a Blessing, but they will have a lot of healing to do. I pray for them all, everyday. Some cases I’ve followed the children are not missing, but were badly injured, and again, have a lot of healing to do. It’s really hard to overcome the demons that are put in a person’s life through abuse, and especially a child’s life. They are still forming their identities, they are still forming their views of the world. They are innocent, and abuse shatters that innocence.

There are lots of explanations by lots of mental health professionals, and lots of spiritual people as to why people are abusive, but an abuser knows what they are doing, and could get help if they really wanted to fix the problem. You know the old saying……….”You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”. That is so true.

It’s not that I don’t believe people can change, I do. I am a creature of perpetual hope and I always have been, but I also believe a person has to want to change, and if they don’t, no amount of counseling or intervention, or someone being good enough for them will work.

Where am I going with this? In earlier times people did look the other way, and did choose to ignore, much like people do today, but there was a time that people valued the life of a child and moral values, the family as a unit, marriage as an institution, all ordained by God. In that time people could find the courage to do what was right a lot easier than they can today, because today our values have changed. Also because today we want so bad to fix everything that we make victims out of perpetrators and demonize victims. We also have a tendency to worry about getting sued, because people are so sue happy. Look at Caylee Anthony’s case. The good guys have all been demonized by those that defend Casey. People lost jobs and were plastered all over the news and their lives put under a microscope, and many of them have even been accused of the crime that it is painfully obvious they had nothing to do with, all to save Casey. Our legal system is not what it used to be. Criminal defense attorneys can be some seriously ugly people, that do not just seek to defend their clients, but to accuse someone else, even if they know the person could not have done it. I must note here that all defense attorneys are not bad, and also there is nothing wrong with them accusing the real perp if their client is truly innocent. Now please understand I do realize that that is a “high profile” case and that you’d have to live on Mars to not have ever seen little Caylee’s face, or have heard anything about her case. Sadly though I think we are seeing why good people will be afraid to do the right thing. Our system is broken. Many times we are finding in these horrendous cases, that DCF was involved and there had been prior abuse allegations, and a few little programs and a bit of intervention, a smile from the perp, and the children are given back, unconditionally, next thing anyone knows a child or children are dead, or near death, and DCF or CPS (depending on the state) is saying we did the best we could. There was no reason to take the child or children from them. Why do we pay these people to do this? Now I will grant you sometimes it’s the judges, not DCF that are the problem, but there is something seriously broken in our system. Examples:

I could keep going, but I think you get the picture, and this is but a very few of the actual cases in recent times. The reports just keep coming. Missing children are victims of abuse more often than not, whether at the hands of a stranger or the hands of someone they love. Statistically speaking it’s almost always someone the child knew, the stranger abductions do happen, but are really much more rare. Don’t get me wrong, there are some children missing that are runaways, but even they can end up in abusive hands, and it seems that more and more the missing are victims of foul play/abuse.

Evil is attacking our children. It’s time for us to get back to our values that made this nation great, and intervene for the children. We cannot continue to turn our heads and do nothing. Each and every child is special. If you see a child that is being abused, report it. Don’t be afraid. Pray for the child and the family. There are some very good organizations in my sidebar under “Interesting Sites That Help”, that are very informative and very proactive. Check them out, get involved. There are many more than just what’s in my sidebar, I’m still finding good ones (as I do I will add them), but get involved. Reach out. Children are our future.

Hi Niecey, I need to get ready to go to my Sister’s house for a family pool party/BBQ and don’t have time to read your whole post. I stopped and googled David Pelzer and found the following which has some chapters of his book you can read read and also went to see if the book is at my public library and it is..

Niecey, thanks for the article and the books. Read a few of the chapters of the link LindaNewYork posted! Thanks! I am going to the book store this week and hope to find them.
Very sad life he had. How sad the living in the garage, eating table scrapes, pretty much. Couldn’t wear his glasses, and hated weekends. I loved weekends as a kid!
Thanks!

Hey Spacely! Daily headlines anymore. Aren’t they? It’s unbelievable to me how anyone can harm a child. Thanks for sharing all of those stories. I think it’s necessary for the public to realize that there are so many more cases than just what makes national headlines. We have to find a way to deal with this. Children are suffering and dying everyday, and it shouldn’t be happening. :cry:

Hey Humble! You are welcome. I do highly recommend Dave’s books. His is a story of overcoming against all odds. He is an inspiration. Spacely does bring me many stories. It would be virtually impossible for me to find all of that on my own. Scott has brought me more than a couple too.

Hey Linda FNY! I know what you mean. It is heart breaking. I wouldn’t wish these horrors on an adult, let alone a child. I don’t know how we can fix it at this point other than raising awareness, demanding justice, and being brave enough to speak up when we see children being treated badly.

Well since the last child was killed there have been more. It is a shame. I started noticing every time I turned on the computer there was another death and lately several at a time. At first I thought it was only happening in the United States. It seems like it happens here more. I know that babies and children have been sacrifices to idols in the ancient bible times, but in modern times we know better. We have a duty to protect the children. I know there are a lot of sick people out there but how do we know ahead of time who would be capable of doing such horrible deeds. We don’t have the answers so all we can do is pray that someone will come up with a better idea to resolve this growing problem if there even is an idea of hope.

Hey Virgie Wilson! Welcome!!! I know what you mean, and I understand how you feel. I share your despair at these cases, and how much of it there is, it’s heartbreaking. I think if we are to have hope in solving this problem, we must get back to good sound moral values. We have to teach or children about accountability, and quit turning out all of these sociopaths. The sense of entitlement in our world today is unbelievable and the only way to change that is to teach our children to work hard and do their best, and most of all we must love them and correct them when they are wrong, values are taught. We have to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves (the victims). We have to get involved in our system of government, no matter what country we live in. When the people get involved and use their voices, it can make a difference. It takes all of us. We do live in perilous times, but we must fight the good fight, and we must keep the Faith.
God Bless You.